Dortmund Draw Leipzig 1-1 in exciting affair

Borussia Dortmund finished with the score of 1-1 against RB Leipzig, securing their second consecutive draw and third place in the Bundesliga table. BVB currently sit one point behind Schalke and ahead of fourth-place Frankfurt on goal differential.

Leipzig opened the scoring in the 29^th minute off a goal by Jean-Kevin Augustin. Schürrle had the ball stolen off of him by Naby Keïta, and the future Liverpool player split the Dortmund defense with a simple through ball to the French striker, and all Augustin had to do was tuck the ball home over Bürki’s left side for the goal. Schürrle should’ve been more aware of the danger around him, but the defense absolutely cannot be picked apart like that with one simple pass. It’s simply inexcusable.

However, Dortmund would equalize shortly after off the foot of that bad man Marco Reus. Mahmoud Dahoud split the Leipzig defense with a wonderful through-ball from just outside the center circle, and Reus was juuuuust onside enough to not have the offside flag raised again. The world-class midfielder danced around Leipzig goalkeeper Péter Gulásci and calmly punched it into the back of the net for the equalizing goal. It was Reus’ third goal in six games since returning from injury on February 10, and it was the 150^th goal of his stellar career.

Dortmund looked like they were going to go ahead around the 60^th minute of the second half, when Dahoud danced himself around Leipzig players and into the opposition box. He set up Batshuayi with a sitter in front of the net, but the ball was a little behind Bats and I don’t think he was expecting it because he mistimes the ball and it went behind him before being cleared away from danger. The tables seemed to turn on the visitors and Leipzig turned up the pressure to find the winner for themselves. They had a couple of chances for the winner, including a dangerous cross by Bruma that was a foot away from finding the head of a Leipzig player and possibly the back of the net.

My MOTM would have to be Dahoud over Ömer Toprak. Toprak was his usual self today at the Red Bull Arena, clamping down on Leipzig star striker Timo Werner and preventing any more dangerous chances from making their way into Dortmund’s box, but Dahoud was a force in central midfield. He was tough on tackles and takeaways, was accurate with his passing, and his assist to Reus for the equalizer was magnificent.

Dortmund have yet to lose a league match with Stöger at the helm, but their defense still needs to be sorted out. Akanji looked rough today, and we can’t always rely on our opponents to have poor finishing week in and week out. We also need our players to NOT BE OFFSIDE IN GOALSCORING OPPORTUNITIES, OH MY GOD HOW FREAKING SIMPLE IS THAT?! WE SHOULD’VE BEEN UP TWO OR THREE GOALS BEFORE LEIPZIG SCORED THEIR FIRST BUT NOOOOO, WE HAD TO LACK SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AND WANDER OFFSIDE JUST AS THE BALL WAS PASSED TO THEM!

Sorry about that, I had to get that off my chest. In more positive news, we saw the long-awaited return of Maximilian Philipp as he subbed on for Mario Götze in the 78^th minute. He looked lively in a short period for someone who just came back from having their kneecap seemingly destroyed four months ago. He’ll be a valuable asset of the bench later in the season and, hopefully, in Europa League matches.